Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Making Science Class Interesting

For many students, science is a tough subject they are only taking because they have to. Not everyone is going to be a scientist one day, but everyone can appreciate that science and technology have a profound effect on their daily lives. Teaching strategies can make a difference between staring at a room of bored students for an hour a day, and having a group of eager, engaged students who want to learn more.

Put science into context to help students understand it better
Help students put things into perspective by using timelines and maps to locate a famous scientist or scientific event in time and space. Use a multi-disciplinary curriculum that introduces science alongside literature, art and history. If you can't choose your text, then leave time in lectures to discuss what else was going on in the world when a scientific discovery was made, or to ask students what they have learned in other classes about the world into which a scientist like Newton or Curie or Steven Hawking was born.

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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Four Common Types Homework Teachers Give

Types of homework traditionally assigned in North American schools tend to fall into one of four categories identified by Professors Jackson Lee and Wayne Pruitt of the Department of Education at Francis Marion College (Florence, South Carolina) in 1979. Each type of homework has individual characteristics, and has a specific objective. The four types are: practice homework, preparation homework, extension homework and creativity homework.

Practice Homework

When most of us think of homework, what comes to mind is practice homework. This is the sort of assignment that allows the student additional opportunities to complete a task or apply knowledge learned in class. It is the most common type of homework assigned, and has a history reaching back to the earliest days of pioneer schools.

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